Chris Gascoyne has revealed he hopes to do Anne Kirkbride proud when he returns to 'Coronation Street' for the late actress' character Deirdre Barlow's funeral

The ITV soap is set to pay tribute to Anne Kirkbride, who played Deirdre for over 40 years before losing her battle with cancer earlier this year, with a funeral for her long-running character.

And Chris, who played Deirdre's step-son Peter, is hoping to give her a good send off.

He said: "Hopefully it'll put a bit of closure on it for us as well ... It's just for a few episodes but it's all about Deirdre and it's the way it's affected Peter, Tracy and Ken and, you know, hopefully we can do Annie proud."

The 47-year-old actor went on to insist he would never say no to reprising his role for good, having quit after a seven-year stint last year.

He told Lorraine Kelly on ITV's 'Lorraine': "I went back for a year and it was great and I ended up doing seven and it just flies by."

Speaking about how quickly time goes because of how far in advance they film, he added: "And Christmas comes a month early there so we have two Christmases and it seems to go on forever."